Top 50 restaurants in the world for 2010

The San Pellegrino top 50 restaurants in the world for 2010 were announced today and yes, finally Ferran Adria’s El Bullihas been knocked from the number one spot. Copenhagen restaurant Noma managed to work their way up two spots from last year, moving past Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck and El Bulli to clinch the number one spot. Owner and head chef Rene Redzepi has interestingly enough previously worked at El Bulli as well as Thomas Keller’s Yountville restaurant, The French Laundry. Redzepi draws from not so much from the cuisines of France, Italy and Spain but rather from Nordic roots. Redzepi sources ingredients to reflect this such as halibut, wild salmon, cod, seaweed and curds from Iceland, lamb, musk ox, berries and the purest drinking water from Greenland, according to the restaurant’s website.

Other big movers were last year’s breakthrough award winner, Parisian restaurant La Chateaubriand, up 29 places to 11th. Daniel Boulud’s New York flagship, Daniel, climbed up 33 places to 8th and South African Asian-inspired eatery La Colombe moved from 38th to 12th. Elsewhere around the world Japan has a new entry with Nihonryori Ryugin at 48th, as does Mexico with Biko at 46th and Singaporean Jaan Par Andre at 39th. Sydney restaurant Quay won best of Australasia, as well as leapfrogging up 19 places to 27th.

Of course not everyone was heading in the right direction. One of the most notable falls was perhaps The French Laundry, plunging 20 places to 32nd. Australia’s Tetsuya’s dropped 21 places while London’s St John, who has pioneered nose to tail eating and reinvigorated British cuisine, fell off 29 places to 43rd.

The awards have come along way since their inception, currently winners are decided on by more than 800 chefs, food writers and restaurateurs from around the word. However there is still some work to be done with far to small a contingent of winners from Asia but they are heading in the right direction. To me the awards read like some sort of dining wish list that may never unfortunately be fulfilled. I will do my best though to enjoy as many as I can and I will make a start on that with a meal at 8th place winner, Daniel in NYC in July. You can check out the full list of winners here.